Vietnam Flight to Make History
United Airlines today will become the first American air carrier in nearly 30 years to offer daily service to Vietnam, a milestone that has drawn relatively little opposition in California’s large Vietnamese communities where some have long resisted relations with the communist government.
The service between San Francisco to Ho Chi Minh City comes as the United States and Vietnam expand commercial contacts through trade and tourism, which the U.S. State Department places at a combined $5 billion this year for both nations.
Connections with the Vietnamese government have long been a source of conflict in California’s large Vietnamese community, with some emigres saying those who do business with Vietnam are traitors.
But United’s new route, which will require 20 hours for a 347-seat Boeing 747 to complete, has generated little debate, in part because some Vietnamese Americans have long used foreign airlines to make visits to their homeland. In the first nine months of this year, 10,000 people flew to Vietnam from the United States to visit friends and family, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
“I know a lot of people who fly back to see their families, and nothing is wrong with that -- as long as they continue to protest the regime,” said Andy Quach, a Westminster City Council member who has frequently criticized the Vietnamese government. “I don’t think it’s a big political issue.”
United spokesman Stephan Roth said opposition to the new service has been minimal, though the company did have to rework ads for Vietnamese-language publications after receiving complaints for mentioning Ho Chi Minh City, named for the late leader of North Vietnam whom many immigrants revile.
The ads now market the new route simply as a flight to Vietnam. Other ads will refer to “Ho Chi Minh City -- also known as Saigon,” Roth said.
“We wanted to be sensitive and to acknowledge that there are some people who wish it was still known as Saigon,” he said.
Despite the change, some anti-communist activists are not happy about United’s decision.
“The airline companies are capitalists; they are only after money and don’t care about human rights,” said Ky Ngo, a longtime Garden Grove activist who has led anti-communist protests.
“The diplomatic relations between the United States and Vietnam only benefits the communists,” he added. “It only helps fill the pockets of the communist government and empower them while they leave the residents poor.”
United decided to base the new flight out of the Bay Area rather than Southern California, which has the nation’s largest Vietnamese American population.
Airline officials said they selected San Francisco because they had already established a hub there for flights to other Asian nations such as Japan and China.
San Francisco also was attractive, United officials said, because the Bay Area is home to about 100,000 Vietnamese Americans -- the second-largest U.S. population after Orange County, with 135,000 Vietnamese Americans.
But any U.S. airline planning to fly to Vietnam from Southern California probably will take into account the political climate within Orange County’s Vietnamese immigrant community. Five years ago, in Westminster’s Little Saigon, the mere display of a Vietnamese flag and Ho Chi Minh’s photo in a store window was enough to prompt months of passionate protest.
Earlier this year, a delegation of Hanoi officials canceled a State Department-sponsored visit after Westminster officials refused to ensure their safety. Also this year, Westminster and Garden Grove passed “anti-communist zone” ordinances requiring prior notice for Vietnamese government delegations and discouraging official contacts with Vietnam.
By contrast, San Francisco has had a sister city relationship with Ho Chi Minh City since 1994. And in 1997, Vietnam established its consulate in the Bay Area city.
“We decided early on that San Francisco would be a city that would reach out to Vietnam, and we worked to become a gateway for the United States to Vietnam, as we’ve done with other Asian nations like Japan and Thailand,” said Mark Chandler, director of the mayor’s Office of International Trade and Commerce. Chandler will be among 347 people on today’s flight.
United’s new service comes nearly a decade after the U.S. normalized diplomatic relations with Vietnam and a year after officials in both countries signed a civil aviation pact. State Department officials say the U.S. and Vietnam are increasing cooperation on issues such as drug interdiction and anti-terrorism, as well as holding long-running discussions on prisoners of war and soldiers still missing in action.
U.S. officials also are pushing for Vietnam’s admission to the World Trade Organization, despite having concerns about government corruption and curtailed human rights in that country.
Last week, Vietnam rejected a visa request by Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Santa Ana), a vocal critic of its human rights record who met with several dissidents during previous visits there.
A letter issued by the government criticized Sanchez for lacking “objectivity and goodwill toward Vietnam” and barred her entry because the “Vietnamese National Assembly and Vietnamese public opinion share the view that a visit to Vietnam by Ms. Loretta Sanchez would not serve Vietnam-U.S. relations.”
Critics say the Vietnamese government regularly infringes on religious freedom, free speech and due process rights.
But Assemblyman Van Thai Tran (R-Garden Grove) said that as time has passed, protests have become more muted.
“I think the Vietnamese American community is resigned to the fact that people fly between the two countries all the time as a matter of convenience and economics,” he said. “Politically, some community members might not like the trend, but on a practical matter, that’s the way it is.”
